


That Coffee Shop AU

by bar2d2s



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 08:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3930151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working at Central Perk was weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Coffee Shop AU

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [That Coffee Shop AU](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4939111) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account)



Working at Central Perk was weird. For one thing, the shop itself wasn’t located in Central City, but right across the bridge in Keystone. For another thing, the name was totally a copyright infringement on that one sitcom his mom had liked when he was younger, Friends. His boss was a not-so-recently widowed single dad who used his son to pick up redheads, his fellow baristas were a mouthy Scot with a personal space problem and a sassy derby chick who once chased down and beat the hell out of a guy who stole their tip jar.

And then there were their customers.

Like any good coffee place that served drinks that occasionally ended in -ino, Central Perk tended to cater to a younger, more pretentious crowd. Sure, there were some anomalies, like the harried chemistry professor who rolled in every morning at 8:15 exactly for a hazelnut coffee, no sugar, and the weary cop who kept trying to flirt with Lashawn and finagle free danishes at the same time, but the rest of the regulars were pretty standard.

For instance, the classic literature fanatic that Evan was obsessing over. If Axel had a dollar for every time James had had to smudge his number out of the guy’s latte foam, he’d be able to afford a jet-ski. Not that he was any better around the skinny ginger guy who ran the music shop up the street, mind. But when Axel’d suggested that James just give it up and write ‘I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU, WE SHOULD BONE’ on their little whiteboard, James had given him bathroom cleaning duty for a month, so he tried to keep himself from bringing it up.

Hell, if it weren’t for Lashawn and her veteran boyfriend, Hunter, the combined sexual frustration would cause the shop to explode. Honestly, for an industry that Hollywood had been romanticizing for the past fifty years, none of them could possibly be getting less laid.

Which is why, especially after what he’d threatened to do with the music shop guy, James probably shouldn’t have let Axel take control of the daily specials board.

At first, he’d just made a few innocent gaming jokes. 'There is no cake of the day’, shit like that. But on his one-year anniversary of being ridiculously post-high school single, something had to give. Luckily, the sensible people had the morning off, so it was just him and Evan opening.

Evan’s lit fan was there early as well, with the look of a man who hadn’t actually slept the night before about him.

“We need to talk.” He’d said, completely ignoring Axel’s very existence. Wow, rude. Still, Evan had went starry-eyed and gibbery, and it wasn’t like the school rush would be in for another fifty minutes, so Axel shoved them towards a distant table and uncapped his pen. He needed his full concentration for this, and it wasn’t like Evan would be physically capable of withholding details later, besides. This would be his finest creation.

It wasn’t.

The whiteboard wasn’t too big, so he had to make due with a little drawing of himself and the words: 

“Today your barista is:

1\. Hella fucking gay

2\. Desperately single

For your drink today I recommend: Giving me your number”

For the most part, the sign didn’t work. It was met with helpless little giggles from grandmas and college girls, and okay, it filled the tip jar pretty well, but that wasn’t what he  _wanted_. Once Evan got back from what was apparently less panicked morning-after small talk, and  _really_ he’d run out of lit fan’s apartment at four am without his shoes  _really_ , though, his luck took a turn for the better.

In his defense, he hadn’t heard the bell. He was a bit too busy being the master of his own fruit dojo to pay attention to such trivial things as 'work’. So when a deep voice recited a string of numbers at him, Axel was a bit confused. Once he looked up, however, he was nothing short of gobsmacked.

Usually, he left the gingers for James. But no, no. This time, Axel was calling dibs. The guy in front of him was tall and lean and muscular and…what was that faint roaring in his ears? Oh, he was being laughed at.

“You in there?” Ginger quirked a brow at him, a lopsided grin on his face. “Okay, maybe it was a bit forward, but hey, I’m a fan of clever signs. I’m Owen." 

Oh sweet baby Jesus, the sign worked.  _Oh_  did the sign work.

"A-Axel.” He kicked himself for stuttering, then put on what he hoped was a flirty smile. “So. Uh. Could you maybe say your number again? My phone is literally a paused game of Fruit Ninja.” Owen laughed, and Axel felt his heart stutter harder than his voice had. He obliged, though, so win.

Axel took the sign down before James came in, once his severely-crippled sense of self-preservation kicked it. He didn’t need it anymore.


End file.
